Print
Dec 4, 2008 4:37 pm US/Central
CBS Reporter Shares Story Of Injury, Recovery
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
Kimberly Dozier was released from the hospital in August 2006.
CBS
It's been more than two years since CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. She was in Chicago on Thursday, telling her story. And what she learned could help you.
In her book, "Breathing the Fire," Kimberly describes what happened Memorial Day 2006 when she and her CBS crew did a "ride-along" with American troops on patrol in Baghdad. They pulled over, and moments later, a bomb went off.
"It sent a wall of shrapnel through all of us," Dozier told CBS 2's Anne State Thursday during a forum at Chicago's Union League Club.
Kimberly says she was just 20 feet away when the bomb detonated.
"I didn't realize that I already had shrapnel in the brain," she said. "Both eardrums (were) blown out. Both femurs shattered, and I was studded with burning shrapnel from my hips to my ankles."
Her photographer and sound man were killed, along with the army captain whom she was interviewing. She spent months in the hospital.
But now she is walking perfectly. In fact, she just ran a 10K race.
Kimberly's message to readers? There is no ceiling on how well you can heal, and don't take "no" for an answer.
"Usually there's one person who walks up to me in tears every single talk, and they needed to hear what I had to say -- that's one of the things that keeps me going," she said.
Thursday in Iraq, the violence continued. A wave of suicide attacks in two Iraqi cities left 17 people -- including two American soldiers -- dead.
The attacks came in areas where the U.S. military has struggled for years to maintain order.
Video: CBS 2's Picks To Click
